17.2: Family Structures
- Page ID
- 228453
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“Family structures” delineate household members who are related by blood or legal ties; this concept typically assumes there is at least one child younger than 18 years of age residing in the household.
US Census Bureau data shows that in 2016 50.7 million children lived with two parents (many of whom had a sibling or other family members also present), 3 million lived with father only, 17.2 million lived with mother only and 2.8 had no parent present in their household (55% of this last category lived with a grandparent in the household).
Specific structures include two‐parent, one‐parent, and “living with neither parent” (e.g., grandparents or other relatives rearing a child, families providing foster care, and children living in institutionalized settings), blended families, single‐parent plus partner families (cohabiting couples, for example), multigenerational families, binuclear families, and adoptive families.
The U.S. Census Bureau utilizes these definitions of family structures:
- Nuclear family: a child lives with two married biologically-related parents and with only full siblings, if siblings are present.
- Cohabiting families: a child’s parent lives with at least one opposite‐sex, non-related adult. This additional adult may or may not be the biological parent of the child.
- Same‐sex cohabiting/married families: a child’s parent lives with at least one same‐sex, non-related adult. The additional adult may or may not be the biological parent of the child.
- Stepfamilies and blended families (terms used interchangeably): children who live in a household formed through remarriage resulting in children living with one or no biologically- related parents. The presence of a stepparent, stepsibling, or half‐sibling designates a family as [1]
The sociology of the family examines the family as an institution and a unit of socialization. Sociological studies of the family look at demographic characteristics of the family members: family size, age, ethnicity and gender of its members, social class of the family, the economic level and mobility of the family, professions of its members, and the education levels of the family members.
Currently, one of the biggest issues that sociologists study are the changing roles of family members. Often, each member is restricted by the gender roles of the traditional family. These roles, such as the father as the breadwinner and the mother as the homemaker, are declining. Now, the mother is often the supplementary provider while retaining the responsibilities of child rearing. In this scenario, females' role in the labor force is "compatible with the demands of the traditional family.” Sociology studies have examined the adaptation of males' role to caregiver as well as provider. The gender roles are becoming increasingly interwoven and various other family forms are becoming more common.
What families look like is illustrated in the following pictures:
In the preceding images, you can see a variety of types of families. A few of these family types are included below:
Families with One Parent
A single parent family usually refers to a parent who has most of the day-to-day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, who is not living with a spouse or partner, or who is not married. The dominant caregiver is the parent with whom the children reside the majority of the time. If the parents are separated or divorced, children live with their custodial parent and have visitation with their noncustodial parent. In western society in general, following separation a child will end up with the primary caregiver, usually the mother, and a secondary caregiver, usually the father. There is a growing community of single parent by choice families in which a family is built by a single adult (through foster care, adoption, donor gametes and embryos, and surrogacy).
Single parent by choice families refer to a family that a single person builds by choice. These families can be built with the use of assisted reproductive technology and donor gametes (sperm and/or egg) or embryos, surrogacy, foster or kinship care, and adoption.
Two Parent Families
The nuclear family is often referred to as the traditional family structure. It includes two married parents and children. While common in industrialized cultures (such as the U.S.), it is not actually the most common type of family worldwide.[9]
Cohabitation
Cohabitation is an arrangement where two people who are not married live together in an intimate relationship, particularly an emotionally and/or sexually intimate one, on a long-term or permanent basis. Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among people in the Western world. More than two-thirds of married couples in the U.S. say that they lived together before getting married.
Gay parenting
Gay and lesbian couples with children have same-sex families. While now recognized legally in the United States, discrimination against same-sex families is not uncommon. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there is “ample evidence to show that children raised by same-gender parents fare as well as those raised by heterosexual parents. More than 25 years of research have documented that there is no relationship between parents' sexual orientation and any measure of a child's emotional, psychosocial, and behavioral adjustment. Conscientious and nurturing adults, whether they are men or women, heterosexual or homosexual, can be excellent parents. The rights, benefits, and protections of civil marriage can further strengthen these families.”[13]
Blended families
Blended families describe families with mixed parents: one or both parents remarried, bringing children of the former family into the new family[14]. Blended families are complex in a number of ways that can pose unique challenges to those who seek to form successful stepfamily relationships (Visher & Visher, 1985). These families are also referred to as stepfamilies.
Families That Include Additional Adults
Extended families include three generations, grandparents, parents, and children. This is the most common type of family worldwide.[15]
Data from the US Census bureau (2022) shows that compared to 2008, in 2018 regardless of ethnic group all children were more likely to live in multigenerational households. Data (2019) also shows that 1.3 million US grandparents are working in the labor force and responsible for their grandchildren's basic care.
Families by choice are relatively newly recognized. Popularized by the LGBTQ community to describe a family not recognized by the legal system. It may include adopted children, live-in partners, kin of each member of the household, and close friends. Increasingly family by choice is being practiced by those who see benefit to including people beyond blood relatives in their families.[16]
While most families in the U.S. are monogamous, some families have more than two married parents. These families are polygamous.[17] Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states, but it is legal in other parts of the world.[18]
Additional Forms of Families
Kinship families are those in which the full-time care, nurturing, and protection of a child is provided by relatives, members of their Tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, or other adults who have a family relationship to a child. When children cannot be cared for by their parents, research finds benefits to kinship care.[19]
When a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents this creates adoptive families. Legal adoption permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities and is intended to affect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction. Adoption can be done privately, through an agency, or through foster care and in the U.S. or from abroad. Adoptions can be closed (no contact with birth/biological families or open, with different degrees of contact with birth/biological families). Couples, both opposite and same-sex, and single parents can adopt (although not all agencies and foreign countries will work with unmarried, single, or same-sex intended parents).[20]
When parents are not of the same ethnicity, they build interracial families. Until the decision in Loving v Virginia in 1969, this was not legal in the U.S. There are other parts of the world where marrying someone outside of your race (or social class) has legal and social ramifications.[21] These families may experience issues unique to each individual family’s culture.
Attributions:
Child Growth and Development by Jennifer Paris, Antoinette Ricardo, and Dawn Rymond, 2019, is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (changes by Bhadha, 2023)
Parenting and Family Diversity Issues by Diana Lang, 2020, published by Iowa State University is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
[1] United States Census Bureau. (2019). Historical living arrangements of children. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/ tables/time-series/demo/families/children.html
[2] Image by Adam Jones is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
[3] Image is licensed under CC0
[4] Image by Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is in the public domain
[5] Image by Surrogacy-UK is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
[6] Image is in the public domain
[7] Image by Army Medicine is licensed under CC BY 2.0
[8] Image is in the public domain
[9] Types of Families by Lumen references Cultural Anthropology/Social Institutions/Family by WikiEducator, which is licensed under CC0
[10] Children’s Development by Ana R. Leon is licensed under CC BY 4.0
[11] Same-sex marriage by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0
[12] Image by Emily Walker is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
[13] Same-sex marriage by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
[14] Family by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0
[15] Types of Families by Lumen references Cultural Anthropology/Social Institutions/Family by WikiEducator, which is licensed under CC BY-SA
[16] Types of Families by Lumen references Cultural Anthropology/Social Institutions/Family by WikiEducator, which is licensed under CC BY-SA
[17] Family by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0
[18] Legality of polygamy by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
[19] About Kinship Care by the Child Welfare Information Gateway is in the public domain
[20] Adoption by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
[21] Interracial marriage by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Children in Multigenerational Households (2022) by US Census Bureau in the public domain
Grandparents still work to support grandchildren (2019) by US Census Bureau in the public domain
Living arrangements of children under age 18 by US Census Bureau in the public domain